Wideband personal-radio recorder

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for concurrently recording multiple radio channels. A recorder includes a wideband tuner having a complex mixer for converting a received wideband RF signal to a complex signal that is then digitized. A digital front end module applies a number of complex down-mixers to the digital complex signal to generate the multiple radio channels in the baseband. Each one of the multiple radio channels in the baseband is further filtered, decimated and demodulated. A digital signal processing unit encodes each demodulated channel according to an audio compression format and stores the then encoded audio content to a storage unit. An RBDS decoder parses radio data service information associated with the stored audio content. The radio data service information is stored in a first section of the storage unit while the encoded audio content is stored in a second section of the storage unit.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application claims benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. provisional application No. 61 / 170,539, filed Apr. 17, 2009, entitled “Wideband Personal-Radio Recorder,” and U.S. provisional application No. 61 / 170,526, filed Apr. 17, 2009, entitled “Wideband Tuner Architecture,” the content of both of which applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The present application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 762,900, filed Apr. 19, 2010, entitled “Wideband Tuner Architecture,” the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to the field of multimedia recording and playback and specifically to systems, devices and methods of concurrently storing the content of several broadcast radio channels and allowing a selected playback of the stored audio information in a “time-shifted” manner at the discretion of a user.[0003]...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]FIG. 2A is a simplified schematic block diagram of a wideband receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0011]FIG. 2B is a simplified schematic block diagram of a wideband radio recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0012]FIG. 3 is a simplified circuit diagram of a complex mixer according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0013]FIG. 4 is a simplified schematic block diagram of a wideband personal radio recorder having a multi-tuner receiver according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Problems solved by technology

That is, radio program recorders cannot both record and playback a desired program at the same time.

Furthermore, current radio program recorders cannot record several programs at the same time.

Additionally, current radio recorders do not permit the user to navigate through the library with both visual cues via a graphics user interface (GUI) as well as audio cues to enable access while engaging another activity such as driving.

As well, current radio receivers must scan the radio spectrum one station at a time; this is a time-consuming process which is an inconvenience to the user of such a device.

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